Working on sharing my gratitude.
Today Im grateful for...
The internet. Yes, the often crazy, information overload of an eco-system that brings us together, tears us apart and everything in between.
Thanks to it, I've learned that the idea of caregiver support was a foreign concept to me. In fact, a few people I know IRL are dealing with providing care for an adult in their life. What resources are there? I went down the Google search rabbit hole to find out:
First search term: support groups for adult children taking care of parents
DailyCaring.com - has a list of 11 private FB groups you can join for caregiver support. I know, Facebook, our old social media darling. But if you can remember your password and ignore the 900+ invites to play candy crush, this could be helpful.
Care.com - lists out 23 popular online and in-person support groups. A few are already listed on DailyCaring.com but what I really liked is the option for in-person support under "Caregiver support groups near you"
AARP wrote an article about the trust building in caregiver groups. I will add they call out Alzheimer's & Dementia specifically.
Second search term: support groups for adult children caregivers of color
Didn't give me much.
Third search term: black caregiver support groups
I found Volunteers of America Minnesota and Wisconsin which led me to a landing page with limited info & a link for donations.
Fourth search term: Latino caregiver support groups
I found this document from the National Hispanic Council on Aging. One (of many paragraphs that hit me even though Im not found of the term Hispanic):
"Hispanics are also more likely to be a primary caregiver and more reluctant to send their older adults to nursing homes or assisted living. This can be related to many causes, such as a) the belief that the patients could be mistreated at assisted homes; b) the belief that not accepting the role of caregiver could bring shame on the family; and c) the understanding of caregiving as a shared responsibility among relatives, especially female siblings.vii These considerations are crucial to successfully develop a national strategy that helps support Hispanic caregivers."
Fifth search term (which should have been my first): caregiver support for bipolar
Literally the first site listed was bipolarcaregivers.org. They have a guide for caregivers in PDF format that has a ton of information (I'm working through reading it all).
I'm going to continue searching & compiling resources. If you know of any caregiver support groups online or in your area DM on Twitter @adtechjess or shoot me a note adtechjess@gmail.com.
We're not alone. JM.
